Want to be Gopher-famous?

Sometimes, I think about Net fame, how it drives folks (including me, to some extent) to do more or less heroic feats of help to Open Source projects they dig. Here is a luke-warm little task you could grab as yours:

It has also been announced that support for the Gopher protocol will be removed by default to lessen attack vectors, but it has also been suggested that the protocol could be retained if someone were to implement Gopher support in a memory-safe programming language.[44]

(Via Mozilla Firefox Wikipedia in the Firefox 4.0 section.)

lynx, vim, k2

Posting from Lynx, so I will probably lose many of my edits.

Today, we battled a Windows installation inside a Mac. Using elderly device drivers was entertaining: “Get values” meant load the full hardware configuration from the hardware. “Modify” was a button that wanted you to first select the label of a property, then press that button.

To finally upload the configuration, you press “Set”.

Terse and sweet.

A TODO: If you, like I do, use the K2 theme, just update to a nightly.

A laser comes to town

I’d been dismissive, even reluctant, about all this laser-cutting and engraving with laser. Until today. The beams were quite persuasive.

Got my first hit of “foxic tumes” today, as the huge behemoth that 1scale1 co-bought fired its way through the plexiglass I’d bought the day before.

The behemoth was Hong Kong-bought, came with no support, and very little documentation (150 pages of incorrect data; photos of defunkt, non-delivered parts) – but the price was not to argue about. There was another Swedish university-level institution that owned another machine from the company, and were happy with it.

If you’re not geek, this laser meme is as huge as brit-pop was when I was younger and dumber.

The significance is: soon they’re done fiddling with it, and know the settings. That will mean pay-per-cut laser work.

php-internals, this Tuesday

If you’re a PHP user, you might want to follow the php-internals talk. But it’s a very talky mailing list. So, “follow” it. From afar. My medicine is to go to the web interface like once a month, and just look at the interesting headings.

“We have packaged PHP 5.3.0beta1! Go test-run your PHP apps. Should be interesting.

Also: “The PHP TestFest is a worldwide event in which PHP user groups and individuals contribute to PHP by writing tests for PHP.” Testfest at wiki and at the QA team’s page.

And, the PHP5 buglist.

DIY Bio, coreboot, and other new frontiers

“The last piece of the computer puzzle to become free”, said Kugg, in explaining the excellence and thrust of the coreboot project. “They make software to replace the BIOS of the computer. Among BIOS makers today, there are only about two large manufacturers. No innovation, or DIY. Until coreboot.” A 25C3 talk by Malmö hacker Peter Stuge about it was named “Beyond the Final Frontier“.

Breaking out of the gray box. In another field, others are doing the same thing.

Nick Taylor, whom I met at Reboot last year (thanks Mygdal and others who make that conference come alive, an annual miracle), has begun blogging in earnest at a new blog he made about amateur microbiology. Go read Genomicon, and especially his screed about DIY biology! He’s become a man not only of words, but of multi-media essaying, a thing hard to do well in microblogging (a medium he’s just as skilled in):

If you can’t grow a beard, don’t grow a beard. If you don’t know, try a moustache. If that fails, stick to eyebrows. That’s my advice.

Anyway, via lurking the amazing but talky diybio mailing list, I heard these two concepts: micropropagation (make lots of plant cells in a jar), and proteomics (“protein genomics”, a weird word like “Obamanomics”). I think proteomics means the process of adding something akin to user-defined functions to proteins. These functions could be like what Danish bio-outfit Aresa did (plants turn red when growing on landmines). Olle-clone: Please do investigate!

And, the concept that everyone should be able to build BioBricks, from a 24C3 talk is another “research thread”. I feel I need to understand all these pieces. At least what they’re for.

Hey, this macroblogging thing is nice.

Arduino news today: New webstore and a new book

Blushing Boy, a web shop for sellers and buyers. Of home-made and self-designed Arduino electronics. And its ilk. It’s Malmö-based. This is awesome stuff. You can buy a Smapler there.

Programming Interactivity: A Guide for Processing, Arduino, and OpenFrameworks, 1st Edition as a Rough Cut. Their pricing model is interesting – if you’re very curious, but also want the book – you can pay more now for early access. Most people are both curious but want the paper book.

If you’re into this stuff, come to the local hackerspace. Bring your stuff.